Sticks and Stones

Judging by the year’s round-up articles on language, 2014 was a watershed year for Russian – “watershed” in the sense of the language going over a cliff. In 2014 civility went out of style and name-calling was in.

It began when a new government came to power in Ukraine. The Russian government first called it a хунта (junta), implying illegitimacy, and then a фашистская хунта (fascist junta). And although there were accusations of ethnic cleansing in Ukraine, the terms фашизм (fascism), фашист (fascist), and the adjective фашистский have all lost their original meaning: a right-wing, authoritarian government and its adherents. Today the words simply mean “really bad.” Some people may say the Ukrainian government is the ethnically impossible жидо-фашистская хунта (a Jewish-fascist junta) or even the ethnically and ideologically ridiculous жидо-либеральная-фашистская хунта (Jewish-liberal-fascist junta), but they are really just saying “bad, bad, bad.”

During the Crimean take-over, the name-calling was more witty than mean, as if no one could quite believe what was going on. The Russians called their troops вежливые люди (polite men) for not firing a shot, while the Ukrainians called them зелёные человечки (little green men), for their green uniforms without insignias – as if they came from outer space.

Then it got nastier. The Ukrainians called the Russian-backed separatists колорады (Colorados), a rather complicated allusion whereby the striped St. George ribbon worn by fighters was compared to the striped Colorado potato beetle. They are also called сепары, short form of сепаратисты (separatists).

The Ukrainian pejorative slang for a Russian is москаль (plural: москали). While it is clear the word comes from Москва (Moscow), it is used to describe all Russians and even sometimes Russian speakers. Historically, it was used to describe Russian soldiers and state officials, and also had the secondary meaning of someone dishonest, particularly in trade. It is not a nice word. Even less nice is the phrase sometimes shouted out at rallies in Ukraine: Москаляку на гиляку! Here гиляка is the Ukrainian гілляка (tree branch), and the whole phrase means: Lynch the Russians!

The most common Russian pejorative term for a Ukrainian is хохол (plural: хохлы), the traditional topknot hairstyle worn by Ukrainian men. This used to be somewhere on the scale between condescendingly affectionate and mildly offensive. Now for some Russians this means a particular type of nationalistic Ukrainian: “Мне нравятся украинцы, а терпеть не могу хохлов” (“I like Ukrainians just fine, but I can’t stand topknotters”).

As the conflict between Ukraine and Russia grew more violent, the slang insults got nastier. Russians call Ukrainians укропы (dill weed – which sounds a bit like “Ukraine” and is used in Ukrainian cooking) and укры (Ukes). Ukrainians call Russians ватники (quilted coats), which summons the image of a stupid, drunk villager and means someone totally under the influence of patriotic Russian propaganda.

One term used by Russians to describe Ukrainians was meant to be pejorative but has been claimed as praise – киборги (cyborgs). The term was used to describe the Ukrainian armed forces defending the Donetsk airport long after they were expected to retreat. It was originally meant as an insult: Украинских военных называли киборгами, потому что они наркоты какой-то нажрались (The Ukrainian soldiers were called cyborgs because they took some kind of drugs). But the Ukrainians claimed it as acknowledgement of their super-human strength.

Today you read headlines and posts like this: Киборги: Сепары не знают, за что воюют (Cyborgs: “The separatists don’t know what they are fighting for.” Укропы воюют с ватниками (The dill weeds are fighting the quilted jackets).

It’s hard to remember that just a year ago such phrases would have been total nonsense.